Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

skymera · 2008-04-28 08:33:07

Hi there.

Im currently a Ubuntu user since April 2007.
It just doesn't cut it for me antmore, too much bloat and too slow.

I heard Arch is v. fast but needs a web downloading text installer. ?

Ok first question, i have a F5D7000 Belkin wireless PCI adaptor on my machine, it uses the RT61 driver.
How easy is it to get RT61 going on Arch? Does it work out the box like on Ubuntu?

Also once i have a GUI which should hopefully be soon ^_^
How easy is it to install and configure Nvidia drivers?

Im also interested in DreamLinux but im asking the same questions there too but no one has replied.

anyway, Thanks for looking, care to shed some light?

bangkok_manouel · 2008-04-28 08:46:32

skymera wrote:

Ok first question, i have a F5D7000 Belkin wireless PCI adaptor on my machine, it uses the RT61 driver.
How easy is it to get RT61 going on Arch? Does it work out the box like on Ubuntu?

It's in the kernel.
http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/ind … _Page#News

I suppose you need the firmware as well. It's in the repos.
http://www.archlinux.org/packages/search/?q=rt61

skymera · 2008-04-28 08:50:19

Thank you so much for clearing that up for me.

I got a guide to sorting it with DreamLinux.

But now im torn between the two.
I'll need to think about it.

I only know Debian you see, Arch is based on Crux? how different is Crux to Debian?

Allan · 2008-04-28 08:51:37

The install can be ftp based or you can install from a CD and then update. This should give you some help.
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide

The RT61 driver is not going to work out of the box. See the following wiki pages:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/RT61_Wireless
[Edit: it seems that info is out of date now...]

Never used Nvidia but plenty of people have succeed getting them to work.
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA

Overall, Arch can be light and fast but you will need to take the time to set it up and learn the system. It is not as simple to get running as Ubuntu but it is worth the effort. If you go ahead an install it and have problems, you ususally will find solutions in the wiki and forums.

In advance, welcome to Arch!

Last edited by Allan (2008-04-28 08:53:02)

bangkok_manouel · 2008-04-28 08:51:56

skymera wrote:

Thank you so much for clearing that up for me.
I got a guide to sorting it with DreamLinux.
But now im torn between the two.
I'll need to think about it.
I only know Debian you see, Arch is based on Crux? how different is Crux to Debian?

this may help:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_vs_Others

finferflu · 2008-04-28 10:21:26

Just to clear it up, Arch is not based on anything. It was inspired by Crux, but it's made from scratch.
To be honest I don't really see much of Arch-specific stuff, even the making of the packages is very close to building from source, it's all very basic, yet very powerful.

sH · 2008-04-28 12:29:29

I don't want to fear you, but you should not install arch, if expect something that is "faster and less bloat" but at the same time as easy as ubuntu.
This is simply not the case. If you expect to dive deeper into the system and don't mind hours of setup then "at some point in time" you will realize that many things are simpler in arch than a lot of people think, but especially the "less bloat"-factor comes at the price of having to do a lot more of configuring yourself as you would need on ubuntu. But don't hesitate to try it on a sparse partition, you can dual boot and will always have a productive ubuntu system if you don't know how to proceed. Feel free to ask for solution on the board and check out the wiki.

I don't know about RT61 but I had a hard time trying to set up RT71 for wpa-supplicant with no success. If you have WEP there should be no problem, because the drivers are in the kernel.

chilebiker · 2008-04-28 19:15:55

I agree totally with what sH said. If you're willing to read and learn, go ahead and you'll be rewarded with a nice and lean system. Btw. there's an excellent beginners guide in the wiki, which solves most problems you might encounter.

jpt · 2008-04-28 20:33:23

The beginners guide really covers all the essentials quite well. It might look imposing at first, but the guide holds your hand throughout. Definitely use it.

beretta · 2008-04-29 02:05:52

I use a wireless adapter based on RT73, and it worked just fine without anything special-- it just took some time reading up to find out how to connect to a WPA router using netcfg2, and that was it. I'd imagine it shouldn't be much harder for RT61, but you never know...

nVidia isn't a problem at all-- as has been said before, just follow the Beginner's Guide-- it's an *excellent* resource, and between that and the forums you shouldn't have much trouble installing, if any.

Arch is done differently than Ubuntu, but if you ask me it's far superior. Granted, I've never liked the Ubuntu feel since it was first developed...

Last edited by beretta (2008-04-29 02:06:04)

fuscia · 2008-04-29 02:19:55

i wonder if the poor, little fella's made it yet.

edit: apparently, he's gone to dreamlinux. best of luck to him. hope it works out for him.

Last edited by fuscia (2008-04-29 02:24:43)

idjut · 2008-04-29 02:50:15

fuscia wrote:

i wonder if the poor, little fella's made it yet.

edit: apparently, he's gone to dreamlinux. best of luck to him. hope it works out for him.

Give him some time, he asked the question today

mivo · 2008-04-29 11:41:56

Well, it seems fairly normal to go distro shopping after a few months of using Ubuntu. Most people go by the initial setup and appearance, though. Ubuntu's latest release seems to be pretty fast, but it's a cyclical release distro, so every six months you basically install the whole thing again from scratch, and personally, I grew a bit tired of it. Reinstalling because the system is broken is one thing, having to do it just to get the latest versions of software and tools is another. Ubuntu's strongest point is its community which in terms of novice-friendliness and response speed is quite unmatched. The distro itself is fairly average, however.

floke · 2008-04-29 12:00:20

fuscia wrote:

i wonder if the poor, little fella's made it yet.

edit: apparently, he's gone to dreamlinux. best of luck to him. hope it works out for him.

Spoken like a true Ubuntu refugee.

fuscia · 2008-04-29 19:08:01

idjut wrote:

fuscia wrote:
i wonder if the poor, little fella's made it yet.

edit: apparently, he's gone to dreamlinux. best of luck to him. hope it works out for him.
Give him some time, he asked the question today

he pm'ed me about arch over at the ubuntu forums. it was well after he started this thread that he started a thread over there about enjoying dreamlinux (i should have made that clearer). anyway, from our conversation, i might have anticipated him opting for dreamlinux as he's short of time and already familiar with the debian way of doing things.

"ubuntu refugee"? that's funny.

ronandi · 2008-04-29 20:31:00

sH wrote:

I don't want to fear you, but you should not install arch, if expect something that is "faster and less bloat" but at the same time as easy as ubuntu.
This is simply not the case. If you expect to dive deeper into the system and don't mind hours of setup then "at some point in time" you will realize that many things are simpler in arch than a lot of people think, but especially the "less bloat"-factor comes at the price of having to do a lot more of configuring yourself as you would need on ubuntu. But don't hesitate to try it on a sparse partition, you can dual boot and will always have a productive ubuntu system if you don't know how to proceed. Feel free to ask for solution on the board and check out the wiki.
I don't know about RT61 but I had a hard time trying to set up RT71 for wpa-supplicant with no success. If you have WEP there should be no problem, because the drivers are in the kernel.

This is actually exactly what I did... I gave 12 gigs for a arch partition, thinking that I might just drop Arch... there no way thats happening now that ive tried it and gotten used to it
If you have the space, do this, and allocate a reasonable amount in case you end up staying.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-04-28 08:33:07

Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#2 2008-04-28 08:46:32

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#3 2008-04-28 08:50:19

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#4 2008-04-28 08:51:37

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#5 2008-04-28 08:51:56

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#6 2008-04-28 10:21:26

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#7 2008-04-28 12:29:29

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#8 2008-04-28 19:15:55

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#9 2008-04-28 20:33:23

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#10 2008-04-29 02:05:52

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#11 2008-04-29 02:19:55

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#12 2008-04-29 02:50:15

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#13 2008-04-29 11:41:56

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#14 2008-04-29 12:00:20

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#15 2008-04-29 19:08:01

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

#16 2008-04-29 20:31:00

Re: Thinking of Installing. Few questions.

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